Apple is set to announce its Q4 2013 earnings this afternoon at 5pm Eastern (2pm Pacific), according to the company's investor page. As we usually do, we'll be following the fun and liveblogging the results. These calls have occasionally given us news about new products, but more frequently they're a good way to check on how the company's major product lines are doing and to get a glimpse of Apple's plans for future growth in the US and abroad. They're also good if you like to hear Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer shoot down less-than-subtle analyst inquiries about watches and television sets.

The last fiscal quarter of 2013 is likely to be better for Apple than the previous two, owing mostly to the launch of the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S. We know that those two phones sold a combined nine million units in their first weekend on the market, and we may get an update on those numbers on this call (though Apple is often reluctant to break individual products out of the overarching iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod categories). The smart money says that iPhone sales will be up year-over-year, iPads and Macs will be down-to-flat, and iPod sales will continue their long, steady decline. Apple just announced new iPads last week, but those won't show up in the quarterly results until next time.

Andrew Cunningham
Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites